Go-Go Town! Review

Go-Go Town! is a life, tycoon, and management simulator all wrapped into one chaotic package, developed and published by Prideful Sloth. I've actually seen this game before thanks to a little crossover with Dinkum, one of my favourite life simulators, so I'm expecting a similar experience here. Heck, they're both developed by Australian studios, which is always a win in my book. So, is it worth the time and effort, or am I going to abandon it like all my previous Animal Crossing towns?

The setup for the game is pretty standard. Congratulations, you've managed to land the job of mayor of a new town! It's too bad that the "town" is a barren dump with you as its only permanent resident. But that's okay because you're more than prepared to build it from the ground up and create a place worth living in. Besides, it's not like you have a choice, as your corporate overlords, TownCo., want you to conquer the Top Town Rankings.

The story isn't too special and can largely be ignored or forgotten. Though there are some hidden tapes that go into the details about TownCo. and their secrets, I didn't find myself all too eager to find out how evil they are. Besides, the tutorial gave me everything I needed to know about them, as upon completion, they knock you out from behind, kidnap you, and dump your poor butt out of a van with nothing but the clothes on your back.

At least the place you get dumped at is pretty nice. It's very cartoony, whimsical, and bright. Characters look very soft and huggable, the environments are varied, and the buildings are really fancy. Also, at times, it can be rather beautiful with some great use of lighting.

As for the sound design, it's pretty well done. It is satisfying to hear people walk around, cheering as they have fun, while hearing all the vehicles driving around to make sure everything works. There are also so many songs you can listen to in the background from a whole bunch of artists. You actually have in-game playlists, covering lo-fi, electro swing, and funk.

There was no soundtrack I wanted to skip as I was playing, so I didn't even touch the Liked Songs feature; I would just switch the genre playlist if I wanted to change my mood. And for the steamers and content creators, there is also a Streamer Mode that will replace the soundtrack for more copyright-friendly tunes, so feel free to play the game with thousands of others watching.

Enough about that, though. Let's make some tourists happy. If you want to reach the top of the Top Town leaderboards, you have to… well, have a town. The aforementioned tutorial is pretty good at getting you started, even though it's covering mechanics you won't get to until a few hours later. You basically go around, collect materials, and place down buildings and amenities that will fulfil the needs of the various guests that arrive from the train.

Some are looking to entertain themselves and experience new things, while others want to get healthy and relax. Every type of tourist has specific wants and behaviours, and it's your job to make sure everyone can have a good time. Not all Townies are human, which I found fun. From gym bros and weirdos to aliens and robots, it's always a treat to see whoever comes into town.

Once your town is up and running, it's time to earn some moolah because expansion isn't cheap. Your main currencies are Coins and EGO. Coins are earned through purchases by visitors and used to purchase buildings, while EGO is earned by satisfying their needs enough to give a thumbs-up and spent on unlocking new things or re-buying copies of what you already have.

But there is a catch: to ensure you don't go through the game too fast, there are caps on how much you can have, which only increase as you level up your town by completing a list of tasks. I can see why it's there and how it encourages you to spend the currency you have, and it is rather easy to make a profit, but it is a little annoying to earn nothing when you're distracted doing something else or opening one of the many treasure chests scattered throughout.

However, you're not supposed to be doing everything all the time. You have better things to do than run a hotdog cart! Luckily, this can all be automated by assigning Townies to jobs, setting up supply chains, and organising logistics networks, like a factory.

There will be tourists who are willing to move to town, but you'll need to fulfil a few requests, like paying them, placing down certain objects, finding lost objects, or changing your clothes. After that, all they need is a place to stay. It encourages you to explore places and discover new things on the way, which is definitely fun, though sometimes I'd get totally lost due to the fact that the map gets disabled in specific places. Not only that, the game doesn't exactly tell you that you'll need special tools to get through some places. This is annoying when you can only set up equipment in very specific areas, but at least you can store one tool into your inventory, along with a small vechile to make travelling around far more quicker.

If you're good at planning ahead, you can totally put yourself out of work as your town runs itself for you, giving you the time to focus on other projects… like making sure the town doesn't burn down… or get hit by a tornado, or overrun with trash birds, or turned into a bigger dump than it was before. It does occasionally rain money though. Even for someone like me who gets a little too overwhelmed by automation mechanics, it was actually really simple, and most of my worries were taken care of by hiring couriers. I just wish they let me hire more sooner.

You also don't have to go it alone, as you can totally play the game in co-op, building the town together either online or locally. Multiplayer can be accessed as soon as you get your in-game phone and call up any mayors from other towns. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who owns this game, so I didn't get the chance to test it out.

Otherwise, that's basically everything about Go-Go Town!… and I really loved it. Like, once the ball gets rolling and you have some Townies doing their jobs, it's actually quite fun continuously improving your town and slowly turning it into something spectacular. And it features some great quality of life features, like being able to customise the UI to fit your needs. Shift around existing elements, add new ones like a mini-map or a date tracker, or even just get rid of it all and play without an interface. It's really cool, and I wish more games let me do that now! Also, for those who don't like using animal products to make stuff, there are vegan alternative recipes.

That being said, there are some bugs I spotted throughout my time, like some guests stuttering through the streets, but otherwise things have been great. 60 FPS without touching a single setting, with no signs of dipping as my town becomes more popular and complex.

I admit that I lost myself in Go-Go Town! and played for five hours straight for my first play session and another five the very next day. No wonder this game got a crossover with Dinkum because it's shaping up to be one of my top 10 games this year. If you're looking for a nice and cosy city builder that won't overwhelm you with too much all at once, Go-Go Town! is just for you.